1. Field of the Invention
This present invention relates generally to compositions for pharmaceutical uses and more specifically to pharmaceutical compositions of proteins and related polypeptides used to heal maladies occurring at or near the skin surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Some of the healing properties of colloidal compositions containing casein, carrageenan or polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) have been long known. Casein, which is a series of related phosphoproteins, occurs naturally in bovine milk to the extent of about 3%. Casein is commonly produced through various means of precipitating the casein curd from the milk. One of the unique features of casein is that it contains all of the amino acids found in living tissue. When degraded with zinc acetate, casein has been used as a burn ointment.
Carrageenan is a naturally occurring structural polysaccharide found in red seaweed. Although one of its chief uses is as a gelling agent, it has been reported to stimulate connective tissue growth, which is essential in scar tissue formation.
PVP was originally developed in Germany during World War II as a blood plasma extender, but it currently has numerous applications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. PVP has been found to render various toxic materials less active due to its ability to form larger complexes with these toxic materials.
Some of these healing and related properties of casein, carrageenan, and PVP were brought together in research conducted by this inventor and Sam Weisberg, which culminated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,558,770. In this U.S. Pat. No. 3,558,770, we disclosed casein neutralized with potassium hydroxide (KOH) for 10 to 15 minutes and then hydrolyzed with a proteolytic enzyme. This enzyme-modified casein was then freeze dried, pulverized, reconstituted, and mixed with suspending, stabilizing, and perservative agents, such as carrageenan, PVP, and methyl pavasept. This enzyme-modified casein sol was found to be very effective as a wrinkle remover and a healing agent in the treatment of wounds resulting from traumatic injuries; healing such wounds, for example, in 4-5 days.
Since the time of U.S. Pat. No. 3,558,770, which issued in 1971, much of the focus in wound healing, beyond antiseptics, bandages or skin grafts, has been in synthesizing proteins known as growth factors. With genetic engineering techniques, scientists have been able to produce some of these naturally occurring growth factor proteins, which have potential in the treatment of wounds resulting from traumatic injuries or burns.
As effective as the pharmaceutical compositions of U.S. Pat. No. 3,558,770 and those cloned through genetic engineering are, i.e., healing in 4 to 6 days as opposed to the normal 7 to 10 days, they do have certain disadvantages. For example, they require a great deal of time and/or money to produce and they tend to be somewhat limited and specific in their applications.